Following indications yesterday that more accounts were being granted access to the Diablo III beta test, the Diablo III Website announces the beta will indeed be opened this weekend to anyone with a Battle.net account for stress testing. The open portion of the beta will begin at 3:00 pm EDT today and will run through Monday at 1:00 pm EDT. The accompanying FAQ explains how this will operate, and notes that while Korean players cannot participate, they will be holding a separate invitation-only event in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The invitation only closed beta will continue as planned until May 1st. To get a head start, you can download the client now from Battle.net.

Verno wrote on Apr 27, 2012, 10:52:There's this amusing fallacy that PC gaming or Bluesnews is somehow more vocal or "whiny". As someone who is a member of a dozen different larger forums with a wide variety of interests represented, let me tell you its pretty much the same everywhere. People also seem to confuse discussion with argument and several posters just resort to personal insults or rhetoric because they can't stomach someone not sharing their opinion.

To be honest here, being someone who's also well known with all sorts of forums on the internet, a difference of opinion basically always results in a "discussion" where two or more people try desperately to hog the intellectual spotlight with their demeaning, provocative and a-social attitude. Everywhere I go it's the same smug, disgusting, arrogant stereotype asshole fighting with himself in a tedious sharing of words they call a discussion.

Don't flatter yourself by claiming you're different, Verno. After 2 or 3 months on this forum I've figured every daily member out. If you want to be different, just say want you mean and mean what you say and let that be it.

You hit the nail on the head with your last statement there which is what gets aggravating about now a-days when discussing PC gaming. I totally understand everyone having their own opinion on how they would like to see things in a game and I respect that… I just wish everyone else would have the same level or respect for others opinions…

They do for the most part. There's a minority of "haters" and "fanboys" who basically just crap all over each other. Most of us have a respectable middle ground for this stuff and can criticize something while still enjoying it or praise something we might not necessarily like. The vocal minority and all that

There's this amusing fallacy that PC gaming or Bluesnews is somehow more vocal or "whiny". As someone who is a member of a dozen different larger forums with a wide variety of interests represented, let me tell you its pretty much the same everywhere. People also seem to confuse discussion with argument and several posters just resort to personal insults or rhetoric because they can't stomach someone not sharing their opinion.

I'm going to enjoy Diablo 3 (I hope) and I don't begrudge anyone for not buying it, there are many valid reasons to avoid purchasing it. More power to those people. The idea that "so many people are buying it" that others don't matter is patently false. Diablo is a successful franchise but it is more of a long tail seller, that's part of why Activision is doing a console port to reach a wider market. They want all of the money, not just part of it

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 27, 2012, 01:18:meh, don't need to RATIONALIZE anything. I have a sizeable group of friends that are getting it that I enjoy playing with. I don't want to play later pubbin'. I already said I hvae 3 days off. Should be able to get through it at least once and then go from there. What I don't need to do is stand around for 250 posts and argue why people SHOULDN"T buy it. Why the F are those who are against a game so argumentative against it for such detailed and BS posts. Let it go. Geez.

Even if I don't play it again for a while, I can pick it up like I do D2 and play later. Who cares.

Its as though you can say it is your birthday around here, and 5 people will jump on you and argue that it isn't.

Couldn't agree with you more Batman... and I'll be damn happy if I run into you on bnet when D3 goes live (hell, I might even see you in single-player mode LMAO)!

You hit the nail on the head with your last statement there which is what gets aggravating about now a-days when discussing PC gaming. I totally understand everyone having their own opinion on how they would like to see things in a game and I respect that… I just wish everyone else would have the same level or respect for others opinions…

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 27, 2012, 01:18:meh, don't need to RATIONALIZE anything.Its as though you can say it is your birthday around here, and 5 people will jump on you and argue that it isn't.

That was my point, you don't have to rationalize anything, so why are you bothering? Buy the game, don't buy the game, presumably you're an adult who can make his own choices. Saying that other people who make different choices than yours are liars sounds like that pointless arguing you were complaining about though.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 27, 2012, 01:18:What I don't need to do is stand around for 250 posts and argue why people SHOULDN"T buy it. Why the F are those who are against a game so argumentative against it for such detailed and BS posts. Let it go. Geez.

There's a back and forth there. You're leaving out the opposite side that tells people they're lying if they say they aren't going to buy it.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 27, 2012, 01:18:What I don't need to do is stand around for 250 posts and argue why people SHOULDN"T buy it. Why the F are those who are against a game so argumentative against it for such detailed and BS posts. Let it go. Geez.

There's a back and forth there. You're leaving out the opposite side that tells people they're lying if they say they aren't going to buy it.

meh, don't need to RATIONALIZE anything. I have a sizeable group of friends that are getting it that I enjoy playing with. I don't want to play later pubbin'. I already said I hvae 3 days off. Should be able to get through it at least once and then go from there. What I don't need to do is stand around for 250 posts and argue why people SHOULDN"T buy it. Why the F are those who are against a game so argumentative against it for such detailed and BS posts. Let it go. Geez.

Even if I don't play it again for a while, I can pick it up like I do D2 and play later. Who cares.

Its as though you can say it is your birthday around here, and 5 people will jump on you and argue that it isn't.

I will probably buy it later on. I am hoping Blizzard work out the issues first. I still haven't bought Portal 2!

BLASPHEMY! Grab it on the next sale, it is well worth it. Was more challanging than the first, story is longer and more invovled. Was a fun game to play. Hell, someone might even have a copy to gift to you.

I will! It will be around for a while. I just don't game much these days (still two days behind with BN!)! I barely play random Flash games too! Maybe I will get a free copy from one of you guys.

I will probably buy it later on. I am hoping Blizzard work out the issues first. I still haven't bought Portal 2!

BLASPHEMY! Grab it on the next sale, it is well worth it. Was more challanging than the first, story is longer and more invovled. Was a fun game to play. Hell, someone might even have a copy to gift to you.

To me when you force an online connection because of the auction house thing and not wanting confusion over offline and online characters you have let the multiplayer corrupt the singleplayer to a tragic degree.

In any case though, I will drop the debate, because as I said before I don't even like these games in the first place.

"However, crucially, it’s a mode of the game that’s deliberately programmed to work, with NPC story-based characters to join your party and interact with you, and a single-player plot to hack through. It is, undeniably, designed to be played as a single-player game."

Been watching this... debate... by the sidelines a while now. Biased by the fact that mostly what comes out of StingingVelvet's mouth is what I agree with, it took me a while to realize that this time I simply agree with Bhruic.

As he states, Diablo is both a singleplayer and multiplayer game. Period. It has a plot, it has NPC companions, etc. HOWEVER! That doesn't mean that singleplayer didn't have to suffer in the development of the multiplayer and the system built around it.

An example, please read:

Because of this overblown AH feature, people probably won't find that extremely awesome and almost imbalanced item they normally would find in these kind of games, because that would mean they'll be found in high quantity in the AH which will make their price drop. Like in WoW.. they don't want that. Rare items must be REALLY RARE. Epic items must be beyond hard to find and legendary weapons (aka that extremely awesome and almost imbalanced item I mentioned above) damn near IMPOSSIBLE to find. Because gear is a big deal in Diablo games, this example alone gave a kidneyshot to the singleplayer experience.

I completely understand StingingVelvet's point, but it's simply not the factual truth. It's hardly a matter of debate that Bhruic is right, to be honest.

"However, crucially, it’s a mode of the game that’s deliberately programmed to work, with NPC story-based characters to join your party and interact with you, and a single-player plot to hack through. It is, undeniably, designed to be played as a single-player game."

Bhruic wrote on Apr 26, 2012, 07:02:No, this is about you claiming the game is "not singleplayer". If you have no interest in playing it in a singleplayer capacity, that's your call. But you don't get to generalize for all of us.

To all but the most anal retentive saying "it's not singleplayer" would be shorthand for "it's not really singleplayer because its design is so focused on multiplayer."